We’ve spent the last few days touring the island of Lombok, our last stop before Oz, and it has been nothing but pure pleasure.  There is something rather special about life here and the rest of Indonesia; friendship, family and happiness simply outweigh a life with material comforts and it’s truly inspiring.

We toured from Senggigi to Kuta and around and up to Bayan, a total of  20 hours on our moped, about two thirds of the island.  We drove through some pretty remote villages well off the beaten track and were treated like celebrates most of the time.  Children have nothing more than a football or a fishing rod to keep themselves entertained and it seems adequate – no playstaions or TV.  Their passion for music is lifting, children and adults play the guitar on street corners, busses, the roadside, on mopeds and everywhere else imaginable.  The only English they know are the lyrics to songs like ‘a hard day’s night’ by the beatles or ‘where the streets have no name’ by U2 – and boy can they play! We wished we had learned the guitar so we could join in, but they loved to play and keep everybody entertained.

We have enjoyed our stay Indonesia more than most and it will be sad to leave.  If nothing else, it has shown us the true meaning and what is important in life.